27th Annual Convocation

27th Annual Convocation of TAPMI, Manipal

The 27th Annual Convocation Ceremony of the PGDM / Healthcare Management Batch 2011-13 was held at Manipal on March 30. The Chief Guest for the ceremony was Shri. R C Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. The graduating students, Chief Guest, Parents, Members of Governing Council, Press, Invitees and Faculty were welcomed by Prof. Vinod Madhavan followed by a prayer. Dr. H S Ballal, Member of TAPMI Trust and Governing Council, declared the 27th Annual Convocation open and extended a floral welcome to the chief guest. The Director of TAPMI, Dr. R C Natarajan then briefed about the achievements and activities during academic year 2012-13 at TAPMI.

The Convocation saw a total of 239 bright students passing from TAPMI. Out of these, 227 belonged to PGDM Batch and 12 from the PGDM-HCM (Health Care Management). The individual students were then called upon the dais to collect their Diplomas in Management from dignitaries. After this ceremony, Dr. R C Natarajan, Director, TAPMI, administered a professional oath by the graduating students.

This was followed by ceremony where awards were given to most meritorious students of the passing batch 2011-13. The Awards given were as follows:

The Meritorious Award for PGDM 2011-13 to three students.

1st place – Mr. Goutham K.S

2nd place – Ms. Harsha Vatnani

3rd place – Mr. Nikhil Baid

The Special Merit Award from PGDM Health Care Batch was given to Miss Madhurima Sarkar

Shrimati Gangamma Ammanaya Award was given to two best lady students in Marketing and Finance from the batch. The award in the Marketing batch was given to Miss. Shruti Garg and that in the Finance Batch was given to Miss. Vandana Soni.

Dr A.S Iyer Memorial Award for the best student in Finance was given to Mr. Goutham K.S

The Best Outgoing Student Award was given to Mr. Goutham K.S

Dr Ranjan Acharya Award for the highest scorer in Marketing Area was given to Mr. Ashutosh Anand

The TAPMI Achiever of the Year Award was given to Miss Esha Gupta.

The TAPMI Titan of the Year was given to Miss Mythreyi S (cash prize of Rs 1 lac)

The 27th Convocation address was delivered by Shri R.C Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. He started with congratulating the students and spoke on the founder late Shri T. A. Pai. His major focus was on how the new graduates should plan to go further in their career. He continued by sharing his own career experiences and changes that he has seen in the past 5 decades. His shared his growth story from being an IAS to Chairman of Maruti and about his educational experience while pursuing Masters in Developmental Economics from Williams College U.S. He took an unpredictable path and chose to join Maruti, his selection of not being a District Commissioner while in IAS and moving to the Corporate world. He spoke on how to plan for future, and emphasized on doing the task at present to the best of one’s ability to achieve success in life. As he had no preconceived idea of responsibilities of an IAS officer it helped him to think with an open mind while keeping on learning continuously.

Mr Bhargava spoke on the decision of his joining the agricultural administration and later the power sector and how his lack of knowledge about these areas forced him to put more effort in learning about these sectors. He shared an excerpt from 1983 when Maruti had to formulate an SOP for the shop floors for which they were associated with the Suzuki engineers. Before this association Maruti had this notion that their previous plan regarding the SOP was perfect but suggestions from Suzuki to implement Kaizen in their processes made them realize their weak spots. Hence, to learn from others, one has to be humble and devoid of feeling of superiority.

Mr Bhargava spoke on the importance of doing things by oneself and acquiring hands on knowledge. He gave example of the British who emphasized on practical knowledge. He stated that India is experiencing poor implementation of policies and micro level thinking is required to change this attitude. “If one really want to be respected, then he has to earn it from his knowledge and actions” these were Mr Bhargava’s words regarding the global competition that Maruti is facing.

He spoke on Kaizen and continuous improvements and ability to sustain it and how Maruti stood tall even when it faced completion from Hindustan Motors and others. Mr Bhargava spoke on recognizing the failures to improve the present condition of business and how adoption of ethical standards from the beginning ensures a longer sustenance. He spoke on the ability of management to motivate workers and make them committed which played a key role in Maruti’s success. He shared how while formulating policies, Maruti thought from the workers point of view and how wealth was distributed. He spoke on drawbacks of the theory that high salary means higher productivity which is not the right parameter.

His last part of the speech was based on how social structure of society can be improved by tapping the resources in rural India. “As Service Sector is facing a steep decline, GDP can’t be solely relied on the performance of services; hence manufacturing sector has to take the lead if India wants to stay on the path of progress”. Also since manufacturing sector does not pay at par with services and financial sector, to overcome this Education has to be made cheaper with maintaining the quality. Shri Bhargava finished his speech by concluding that India needs to use technology if poverty and corruption have to be eradicated.

The ending ceremony proceeded with a memento presented by Dr H.S Ballal to Shri. R.C Bhargava and a vote of thanks proposed by Prof. Vinod Madhvan.